Desertnate
05-01-2017, 09:39 AM
I've had a sampling of the 5.5" Thin Pro pads in several colors for a while, but never used them for some reason. Now that I've run them, I don't know why I waited so long.
This weekend I did a full detail of my DD and then coated the paint. To get ready for the coating I had to remove a year's worth of light swirls and wash induced marring from the hard, black pearl, VW paint. I was using the Blackfire SRC duo. Honestly the compound did all of the work and I could have stopped at that step, but I figured I try to jewel out the finish a bit with the polish too since I won't be doing this again (hopefully) for at least another year.
My weapon of choice for several years has been the Lake Country Flat Pads, and since I only had one Thin Pro pad in each color, I worked them into my pad rotation. Normally I'm using the white pads almost exclusively for both steps, but in this instance, I rotated in a black Thin Pro pad to my polish rotation. White Thin Pro was used with the compound along with my white Flat Pads.
OBSERVATIONS
White: True to the description and Mike Phillips discussion of these pads, they work really well on humble DA's like mine. For the same speed setting, the head seemed to spin faster and the same level of correction was achieved with fewer passes. Typically with a Flat Pad I'd do about six passes over a section, but the Thin Pro's it only took four. Not only was the correction equal, but I'd go out on a limb and say they finished out better too. The foam is a bit firmer on the Thin Pro's and they don't seem to absorb as much product as the Flat Pads.
Black: I really like this pad for doing a bit of jeweling should I do it again. Like the white pads, the foam on this one is more firm than a black Flat Pad. I always felt the black Flat Pads were too soft for anything other than applying an LSP. The black Thin Pro worked great on hard paint with a finishing polish. I could also see them doing well on soft Toyota/Subaru paint with a finishing polish or swirl remover.
General: In addtion to the observation about the DA not working quite so hard to turn the polishing head and product absorption, I found I was much more accurate with the thinner pads and the slight "lip" they had around the edge. I felt I had better control and could get closer to the edges of areas I was polishing.
I really liked these pads and using them back-to-back with the Flat Pads there was a noticeable difference. The Flat Pads still work well for me and they were a great learning tool. Going forward as the Flat Pads wear out, I'll be swapping them out with Thin Pro's.
I also have a gray, orange, and red pad that I haven't used yet. Grey and orange are really firm and agressive. Hopefully my DD's never get so bad I need to use one. Grey almost feels like a sanding disc. Red would work well for LSP application, but since I'm using coatings at the moment, I'm not sure when I might give it an actual run.
This weekend I did a full detail of my DD and then coated the paint. To get ready for the coating I had to remove a year's worth of light swirls and wash induced marring from the hard, black pearl, VW paint. I was using the Blackfire SRC duo. Honestly the compound did all of the work and I could have stopped at that step, but I figured I try to jewel out the finish a bit with the polish too since I won't be doing this again (hopefully) for at least another year.
My weapon of choice for several years has been the Lake Country Flat Pads, and since I only had one Thin Pro pad in each color, I worked them into my pad rotation. Normally I'm using the white pads almost exclusively for both steps, but in this instance, I rotated in a black Thin Pro pad to my polish rotation. White Thin Pro was used with the compound along with my white Flat Pads.
OBSERVATIONS
White: True to the description and Mike Phillips discussion of these pads, they work really well on humble DA's like mine. For the same speed setting, the head seemed to spin faster and the same level of correction was achieved with fewer passes. Typically with a Flat Pad I'd do about six passes over a section, but the Thin Pro's it only took four. Not only was the correction equal, but I'd go out on a limb and say they finished out better too. The foam is a bit firmer on the Thin Pro's and they don't seem to absorb as much product as the Flat Pads.
Black: I really like this pad for doing a bit of jeweling should I do it again. Like the white pads, the foam on this one is more firm than a black Flat Pad. I always felt the black Flat Pads were too soft for anything other than applying an LSP. The black Thin Pro worked great on hard paint with a finishing polish. I could also see them doing well on soft Toyota/Subaru paint with a finishing polish or swirl remover.
General: In addtion to the observation about the DA not working quite so hard to turn the polishing head and product absorption, I found I was much more accurate with the thinner pads and the slight "lip" they had around the edge. I felt I had better control and could get closer to the edges of areas I was polishing.
I really liked these pads and using them back-to-back with the Flat Pads there was a noticeable difference. The Flat Pads still work well for me and they were a great learning tool. Going forward as the Flat Pads wear out, I'll be swapping them out with Thin Pro's.
I also have a gray, orange, and red pad that I haven't used yet. Grey and orange are really firm and agressive. Hopefully my DD's never get so bad I need to use one. Grey almost feels like a sanding disc. Red would work well for LSP application, but since I'm using coatings at the moment, I'm not sure when I might give it an actual run.